In the businesses I’m actually involved in, there aren’t that many unsavoury people. Maybe in the early to mid-2000s I came across some hangers-on in the fashion world. But SEO, wow, there’s a great deal of unscrupulousness. I’ve seen their con-merchant emails since the late 1990s—all the more reason that being grouped as one of them is so offensive.
Here’s an exchange in the comment fields of a disinformation splogger.
Kiddo, don’t double-down on lying when the game has already been lost. And don’t try it on with someone much, much smarter than you who can spot a keyword-stuffing post a mile off, and who’s had far more experience tracking their emergence and evolution on the web for nine months.
This lad is a tiny bit smarter than the one who linked to my site to show me who the “real” Jack Yan is.
Semrush continues to do damage even after they came clean—I’m still tidying up their mess.
And there really are people who would prefer to look gullible, fooled by a computer algorithm.
The take-downs continue in the meantime. Speaking of bad judgement, there really are people who would prefer to lose their entire sites rather than delete a single disinformation post.
No great loss. With each disinformation site removal, the World Wide Web smells that much more, if ever so faintly, of roses.